


Monarch Drafts

by Corny_Tyrannosaurus



Series: Love Reel [5]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Gravity Falls, MonsterVerse - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Consanguinamory, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Interspecies Romance, Monsters, References to Monsterverse, Sibling Incest, original creatures, references to doctor who
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2020-11-26 01:11:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 13
Words: 12,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20921705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corny_Tyrannosaurus/pseuds/Corny_Tyrannosaurus
Summary: A series of brief, short-tempered extractions of "Whatever follows after The Shifts".





	1. A Tale of Kings and Monsters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So long ago, there was an Emperor...

There was once an Emperor, the mightiest an emperor could be. In the endless seas of the Eternity he made his endless kingdom, the most beautiful realm any thing with eyes could ever have the luck of ever glimpse. 

Thus he was noble to his borderless dominions, and comanded proud and righteous over the misty heavens he and his breed were born, so long time ago. Over the endless soils of the spheres he ordered the Gardeners to grow endless forests to be the home of countless wild beasts, inherited by the elder flesh firstborn in the heavens. The Stormbringers comanded the endlesss storms which provided the thriving  _ vyda _ with fresh waters and thunder to grow. He Guardians flapped furiously at the edges of the Infinite, under the order to never cease, to never give up, to reach the unreachable and lifeless wastelands of Chaos to fill them with life. 

His kingdom of beasts and nameless beings was safe under his strong wings, his six eyes guarding ceaseless over the wellbeing of the  _ vyda _ , thus de  _ vyda _ was what gave meaning to the Existence, so as long as a soul breathed and ate and loved within the eternal seas, Existence could keep going.

But then the Timeless Ones came.

At first he just dismissed them, as just another group of stranded newcomes whose steps would soon find a home within his dominion, but soon it was obvious they were nothing like he had seen before. 

The Timeless Ones, of shiny rebirth and wise beyond the Emperor’s understanding, commanded their stony monsters to devour the jungles, so they proudly built sterile rock cities where what began as a few ones turned into crowds, could live in the luxury and the pleasure. Nor Stormbringer nor Guardian who dared to face them came back to their swarms, the jungle’s beasts lost in the fire of the burning wild, the Gardeners hunted down without resting or forgiveness. 

Their size misserable, their hands tiny as scales, but somehow they were eating his kingdom, and with their actions the Emperor saw blasphemy, an insult he wasn’t going to forgive. 

He flew ravenous over the cities, and turned them into ashes at the bow of his bolts. The proud rock buildings crumbled to dust between his jaws, the crowds turned into a pulp of molten corpses under his feet. A thousand cities had fallen to his rage, and he was only beginning. 

But the Emperor was too proud to thriumph, and the Timeless Ones too inmortal and rageful to forgive the Emperor. 

They put him in chains, and jailed him in a forbidden place beyond the realm of his breed, at the edge of the Eternity where unmeasurable leviathans sang maddening lyrics of insanity and doom beyond the heavens. 

So the Timeless Ones sang songs of victory and power, as they danced and thrived again. They rebuilt their cities over the heavens, and covered them with eternal glass. In an act of nobility they let the Emperor’s kingdom to be free around their cities, because they knew heavens needed the kingdom to live, and at their eyes, the kingdom was merely a jungle of mindless beasts to be left alone. 

They lived in peace for a thousand eras, building what they wanted, burning what they needed and never more than the necessary, their cities giving Glory a name, their lives being an eternal paradise... Until the Yellow One came. 

The mistake of an god allowed a mere mortal from a Within as any other, to achieve the powers of a deity, and this man, son of the rage and the hurt, as first action burned his home to plain ashes, along everyone he ever knew. 

And he turned his eye at the heavens, and saw the kingdom, and saw the Timeless Ones, and he saw everything was good... and he hated them forevermore. 

With his fist he choked the necks of the kingdom, with his bolt he burned down jungles and storms and cities alike, with his minds he comanded death and insanity wherever he saw order and peace. He gathered stranders and turned them into his henchmen, their minds as broken as his own, and put dark gods under his hand to comand as hounds of hell to burn everything that was ordered, and everything that was good. 

But the Yellow One made the same mistake that the Emperor and the Timeless Ones before him had done before, none alive or sane to warn him. He was just to proud to thriumph.

He had cut down too much  _ vyda _ , killed too many, burned down too much wild. Thus without enough  _ vyda _ ,the heavens turned into shapeless foam, twirling around the Withins so the Yellow One could not escape. The leviathans then came in, and what was left of usable stability was stolen so their gargantuan could float inside the seas. He found himself powerless and trapped within the rotten heavens among his crazed henchmen, sitting in frustration and rage in his throne of illusions and madness, crused forevermore. 

Wisemen say the Emperor will be able to break his chains someday, that the Emperor will flap his wings again, that the Emperor will defeat the Yellow One and restore the heavens. 

But as the long days gone so long ago, who could believe it? 


	2. The Sting on my Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once upon a time, in a fallen time line there was a happy day, but not for everyone

Everyone were happy. Balloons tangling from the hands of proud parents over the humid grass, laughs and noisy voices coming from the teenagers around them, a certain vibe of joy and relieving that everyone could feel infected for… Everyone except him.

Because, he knew what that day meant for the future.

Sure he had some days more to spend with her before she moved from home, but she was going to leave anyway. Her friends, their grands, even their own parents seemed to be possessed by a sort of anticlimactic happiness about it and he didn’t have the least idea of why. She was going to leave, maybe for good, why were everyone celebrating and making plans? Why wasn’t anyone the least sad?

And she wasn’t going any near place, she had accepted in a college at the other side of the country, away from anyone she could’ve ever known… far away from him. Of course, that was the only he could understand at his bare 6 years old and he knew there was a lot of grownup stuff he needed to understand. But why there? So far from everything. If he imagined that every millimeter between home and her future living place was a year, she was going to be at the entire History of Earth from him.

That was a heck of distance.

Who was going to take him to the park and play with him and sleep with him those scary nights when their parents weren’t at home? She was her playmate since he had memory, and even when he used to play with his parents too, it wasn’t the same. She had that… sisterly vibe, that sense of confidence that made him to feel like her partner in crime. He had heard stories from his classmates about how mean teenagers were, but she wasn’t like anyone of them. She was the enough brave to walk to the flares of danger, the enough patient to stand to his tirades of whys, the enough kind to know the exact way to cheer him up those days he couldn’t just help himself with his sudden waves of sadness for which not even their parents had idea of what to do.

He knew she was special, the one on a million. Bear with the fact she was going to leave, wasn’t funny at all.

So those last days he had been specially sullen. He didn’t want to play, he didn’t want to eat as much as he liked, and he didn’t want to talk with his family more than the necessary. His behavior immediately fired back at him; he noticed how they were especially worried about him, and that made him to feel guilty, horridly guilty. Once their parents weren’t at home she had tried to talk with him, and he ran away from the room, trenching himself inside the bathroom. Last he heard from her from where he was, was that she was crying. Since them he avoided her for a hellish last week, he couldn’t bear the fact he made her to cry when she had spared him from his sadness so many times…

So the day of the ceremony, the car was particularly silent; he knew what was going to happen, and he hadn’t any emotion about it. Occasionally, their parents could point at something she reacted with joy, but instantly fade away back into the silence. Sure, their mother had always a good riddle to make them laugh, but not even that was enough. A bubbling idea came to his mind when she looked worried thru the mirror at his sister. Maybe they weren’t as happy as they looked, maybe they just were faking. Maybe, just maybe, it was his turn to cheer them up just as she had taught them. Because she was going to be very far from them very, very soon.

Then the ceremony came. She was sat along her classmates with those bluish ridicule dresses that everyone had to hear and those flat-squared hats that looked like books. The bald man in front of the podium spoke her name, an she stood and walked away from his classmates, amused and shy at the same time.

Then she spoke. Her voice, her words, the way she used a tale she used to tell him to sleep as a complex metaphor of life. Everything was almost angelical. He didn’t resist his urges to smile as she spoke so beautifully; it was the first time in his life he felt how pride was. He made himself sure, repeating in his voiceless lips every word she said, that he wasn’t going to forget it. Those were the kind of words that turned a bad guy into a good guy, a blossom into a flower, a child into a man. He was, right now, so proud of her sister…

But then a sniff distracted his concentration. Just a little (He could make himself proud of his level of focus for someone of his age) but was enough to make him to roll his eyes to their parents’ direction.

They were… crying?

They were crying! Silently but he instantly noticed it. Tears rolling over their cheeks, hands holding in the way he noticed they did when they had to endure some grownup problem, and wiggly smiles.

Now he knew. They weren’t fully happy for her, at least not for the detail of her far far away future home. They were struggling too with the fact she was going to leave, they didn’t wanted her to leave at all. But after all those days of apparent joy he concluded why.

He rolled his eyes back to his sister, and saw a tiny watery trail over her eyes still in the distance. She wasn’t happy even when she was.

The catharsis was almost instantaneous. They were also very, very sad. But they were happy too despite the sadness. How could something be sad and happy at the same time? He only could think in stings. Take a sting out of your skin hurts, but is a good thing to be happy for. The same had to be happening with her. She was going to leave, and that hurt, but she was going to be where she would be happy and do many amazing things, and that was a thing for which now he could be very, very happy for to happen.

But how about the sadness? Well, he now felt it was his turn to cheer his family up.

After the ceremony concluded, it was photo time. He was still with a dot of sadness about it, as he has hoped to do it, but now was a machinating one. He wanted to something to alleviate them now, and now he wanted to take that as his personal mission, he had to unveil how exactly do it.

His sister’s friend, the one who used to kiss her in the way their parents used to kiss, took the cellphone so they could share a family photo together. He was standing at a prudent distance when his sister looked at him with a sullen smile.

“Connor?” She said with sadness, and that was it. He wasn’t going to make her to feel sad anymore, he was to cheer her up, make his favorite person in world to enjoy her special day.

He stood there for a moment, just ‘cause he loved suspense, And made fists with his little hands.

Then he ran.

His body hits hers as his arms wrapped around her hips and her arm, so much force than she lost balance and recharged on her mother, who lost balance too, and how nearest thing to grab to keep themselves away from the ground than the hair of her beloved husband?

“AAAAY!” He groaned aloud, and that moment they heard the sound of the cellphone’s flash.

Probably not the best take they could’ve got from the Pines family, but it was a very special among them. Because that day hurt, but was a happy day after all. It was the day that Connor had the braveness to assure his sister that despite the hurt, everyone could be happy, a lesson his family was going to keep learning a thousand times more.


	3. Jail Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Year 207̃017. Mason and the War Doctor have some time to meet each other, and the Doctor spends some time in talk to her about the horrid War in Heaven...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This events take place during "The Shifts".


	4. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 4500 B.C. Gravity Falls once was a more wild, perilous land, inhabited by fearsome animals not born to be understood. A lonely hunter is going to learn, that in the land of the monsters, no one is an outlander...

Too late, he saw the baby standing in terror how one of the necks of his mother was bleeding. And he was at moments of being squished like a snail under a foot. The groaning beast took the arrow off with her left head, launghing it at the skies.

Too late to run.

Too late to shoot another arrow. He closed his eyes, hopping to feel the pointy teeth of the beast cut into his flesh, when he felt a strong pulse in his chest, and his feet lost the floor, and his back crashed agaisnt a trunk. His body fell above the floor, and his eyes opened wide in his last moments of counsciousness. The beast walked away with her baby at her side, growling joyful.

He smiled; he had no real reason to do it, but he did. Life again slammed him against the facts, and he was happy to feel pain for it, the pain you feel to remember you’re alive. He knew his hunt comrades were going to find it, and his memories got a speech of the old wise woman as he fell prey of his concussion…

_Sometimes we forget that everything has a place in the world. Sometimes we forget that we have a place as well, and we foolishly take refuge of world into our fierceness to try to forbid our fears of our hearts. But as every thing in this world, we have a place. And if the place does not exist, the world will create a place where to put every thing with no place to be. So that’s why this valley is thriving in monsters, thriving in the strange. This is a place of world where what does not have a place is destinied to be. We lost our home, we had not place to be. But the world guided us to the special place. The place all of us can call home…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The existence of the tricephalian beast is hinted in Journal 3 when Ford mentions the creatures that roamed the ancient Gravity Falls despicted in the paint caves.


	5. Over My Head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At some point of 2017...

It wasn’t a particularly special afternoon. Wednesday, mid-noon, his usual tutoring business, nothing to worried about… Except he really really had to be worried about. Because he was parking his van in the reddest of red spots for him in the entire country: Aiden’s home.

Well, _home_, to put him in some word that wasn’t “_the prison Aiden awaited to get out once graduation comes_”. Dipper couldn’t doubt how much Aiden hated to be at his house, and how much his parents were the polar opposite to their own. So, He made Aiden to be sure his parents were not going to be at home while he was there in his accustomed paranoid manners. Aiden didn’t tend to talk much about it, but he knew his parents were not precisely fond for the Pines family after everything that had happened, and now, with his entire life going thru the hard-to-cross path in every sense of the term, he could just not allow to bear with another risky activity rather the ones he had already planned for today.

At least, nothing that was more risked than Mabel’s proposal to hang out at the city’s swimming pool that night. He had his parameters, after all.

He turned off his van, looked at his backpack with some soothing sense of duty, and puffed aloud.

_Man how I’d like to just have declined this. _

But sure, he couldn’t allow himself to do that; not after everything Aiden had done for them. Even within his paranoid, he couldn’t deny that Aiden had showed himself as a loyal friend… if only his brain could make him case at least once and to pretend he wasn’t still wary of a sudden and unlikely backstabbing of his part.

_Damn, stupid brain of mine. _

His mind road stopped the moment he heard the annoying noise coming from the door’s bell. He was there, awkwardness and everything.

The door opened fast, and his muscled comrade came to receive him. He was wearing a gym shorts, an undershirt, and slippers; if he wasn’t enough distancing from him, he could swear Aiden had just picked his clothes in a hurry. But still there he was, as merry as usual. How he could do that Dipper wasn’t sure; even when he was sure Aiden could feel his paranoid aims from a hundred miles of distance, he always received him with this unexplained warm joy that Dipper couldn’t explain. Aiden had gotten weird in many senses, but that detail was the most unbearable. His eyes that betrayed his complete joy to see him, that eyes you only see in someone thanking every day for life after a near-death experience.

_Is this man aware I’m the brother/boyfriend of his last ex, isn’t he?_

“Hey! What’s up bro!” Aiden exclaimed with his hands tangling from the doorframe.

_My panic, as sure._

“Hi, Aids” Dipper pretended to be enthusiastic for be there, forcing a half smile that was supposed to express nonchalance. How much that failed could not be told with any current language upon Earth.

Aiden frowned in a dot of guilt, but his face features hided it enough good to respond just that second.

“Com’ inside, I prepared beverages” Aiden responded friendly, moving so Dipper could come in.

_Did he just say “beverages”?!_

“Sure” Dipper replied and walked inside. Then he rolled his eyes to make a quick scan of Aiden’s house. The coldness of the furniture, the beige paint in the walls, the minimalistic style of everything was so unwelcoming as Dipper could not to give credit; surprisingly, someone in the world had worse decoration sense than Pacifica had. Aiden disappeared from sight to come back with a tray with a jar and a couple of cups. Whatever the jar had inside looked purple and smelled quite more decent than he had expected, and for a moment he felt a little more welcomed. Aiden contrasted his own home like an angel in a muddy badland.

“What’s that?” Dipper asked, trying to not sound rude, as he accidentally sounded every time a situation involved hand-made foods and drinks.

“Just my personal recipe. Proteinic stuff tends to taste like sh*t so I made my own healthy drink. I wanted to call it _Aiden’s Juice_ if not for the innuendo, men cannot label things properly, you know” Aiden said as he walked towards the wide staircase along them, and Dipper followed him upstairs, not enough wary to catch what Aiden meant when he referred the innuendo.

_What’s wrong with the nam…? Oh. Damn. _

The two boys reached the second floor; again, another mockery-of-an-office-building. Beige carpeting covered the entire floor, with beige tapestry over the walls. Doors were metallic grey, more proper for a prison than for a house, Dipper couldn’t believe Aiden grew in a place that was just so not-him.

“I know, not the best looking; Mom chose everything” Aiden interrupted his thoughts again.

“Wha-? Oh no no man I just…”

“Hah! I’m kidding, bro. Just teasing you” Aiden interrupted playfully, as he recharged the tray over his chest to free one of his hands and opened the door. “Well; there we are, my room” Aiden said as he got in, Dipper following his steps inside the room, “make yourself comfortable”.

Aiden’s room was slightly different from rest of the house, but still unwelcoming and cold. Everything was ordered and clean, not a single sock out of place, all opposite to his own room when he had one. For a moment, he thought all the ways Mabel could mock of him for that.

Aiden put the tray over the desk and sat over a chair as he opened his laptop to let some background songs to run, Dipper putting his backpack over the floor, but refusing to sit anywhere. This was Aiden’s room, and Aiden was a boy. He knew perfectly what young men tended to do within their rooms, and the idea of him sitting there was something his hypochondriac mind could not bear.

“Come on, man; sit. You need to relax a little” Aiden suddenly said. Dipper slowly sat over the bed, taking his backpack just to occupy his mind in whatever wasn’t him being sitting there, but sure it seemed like he was going to do something important. Aiden arose from the chair and took the jar, serving the cups. Then he took one and gave it to Dipper.

“Thanks” Dipper said, receiving the cup with his free hand, and disposed to drink it’s contents out of pure pretension of calm. For his own surprise, the juice was quite delicious, him letting a “mhm!” to go out as he kept drinking until the cup was void. “Hey, t tashistes good!” Dipper said with uncontained surprise.

“I know, Ellen says I should have been a cook in my past life, but being fair that’s like the millionth attempt after a lot of sh*tty attempts, You had to see the mess I…”. Aiden stopped his happy memory, and for a moment he just stared at the cup in his hand. Dipper didn’t need to analyze his reaction to recognize that that memory didn’t ended well. He had seen how his father was, and sure after that fun, someone had came too soon to watch how his son had ruined the kitchen.

_Oh man I’m so sorry for…_

No. It wasn’t time for pity. Quickly Dipper took his notebook and a pen from his backpack, and opened the notebook over his lap. “So! We should begin with some brainstorming” Dipper began, “I was thinking you could mention your achievements in the soccer team and using them as analogies of the paths of life..”

“Eugh, not them, please” Aiden interrupted him with plain voice. “Those jerks don’t deserve any mention from me after everything that happened. Well, everyone except Henry, maybe Henry deserves some”

“Oooook, so we skip soccer analogies” Dipper discarded, drawing a line over that part of the list. “Ok, we could use your study achievements, you got pretty much good scores in your…”

“Dude, it’s a graduation speech; the least our folks will want to know is about studying” Aiden objected with an expression of irony as he sat again in the chair. Dipper groaned, and proceeded to draw a line over that line too.

“Ok, then; no scores to use” He said. “What about girls? I mean, you had some…”

“Aaaare you willing to open that can of worms for a graduation speech, pal?” Aiden aimlessly interrupted him again with a frown of disbelief.

“What? I don’t se the…” Dipper began to say when Aiden rose a eyebrow. “…Oh, true; Mabel. Yeah not sure if I could feel comfortable remembering when you two… yep, not to consider” Dipper asserted, drawing another line over his notebook. “Your car, maybe? I mean, at these times is not an easy deal to get one…”

“The old cow? Mom bought it for me, I insisted her I didn’t want something too fancy so we ended buying it in a cheap place” 

“Fine, no car analogy” Dipper drew a line again, seemingly stressed. “Exercise maybe? I mean you’re like an action figure right now, you can talk about it”

“Nah, I’m not that bulky. I couldn’t be seen when I wear the toga; it would sound dumb” Aiden disserted.

“Some old memory you can use for motivational purposes, then? All of us have one” Dipper said with some regaining calm. Aiden’s mind spiraled to that time his courage motivated a whole group of newly met folks… to save the universe from destruction, and that, specially that, could not be mentioned or even hinted at all.

“Yeaaaah… nop” Aiden dismissed again. Dipper frowned; his already weak was crumbling like a sand castle.

“Come on, Aiden. There must be something you can use in a motivational sense, you’re expected to encourage people to fight for their future, to make feel them to feel powerful”

“ I don’t think I have any idea for that. Can’t you help me with it?”

“Aiden, it must be something you’re familiar with; otherwise it will sound forced and obviously not from you. Come on, whatever is useful. Some family memory, maybe?”

“Heh, have you seen my parents, Dip? Grans are not any better” Aiden replied with irony.

“Ok, what about… some day you were taught something at school that changed your life or something?”

“I really don’t remember to put that much attention to sciences or school topics at all before last summer” Aiden dismissed with a frown of disbelief.

“Aiden’s Juice? You got a lot of effort to make the final recipe?”

“No I don’t think I can get any good speech with that many potential innuendos included”

“Any hobby? Whatever’s useful”

“Yeaaah… nop, we already discarded them”

“Goddammit! Why can’t you just pick some… grr!”

Dipper let his body to fall over the bed, covering his face with frustration. His mind could just not surpass the average level of creativity he needed for the task. Not today at least. And now he was trapped within it with no further hopes to resolve anything, even worse for his perfectionist self.

Suddenly, he felt how the bed moved, and turned his head to see. Aiden was laying aside him, with a serene glance of concern.

“What’s wrong, Dipper? Is something troubling you?” Aiden asked.

“Can we just skip the part where you try to motivate me?” Dipper demanded with serene annoy.

“Weeeeell I guess if I’m expected to motivate a whole crowd of enraged teenagers like us I can practice with a single one” Aiden insisted, extending his arms across the bed.

“Damn that sounds fair” Dipper reassured. “When did you get that analytic?

“Last summer, if I can recall it right” Aiden said with pretension of joy.

“Last time I teach that to someone else” Dipper said with disdain, and rolled over the bed, giving his back to Aiden.

“So, are we doing that now? Hiding things?” Aiden asked, recharging over his arm to raise his body.

“Funny words coming from you” Dipper reclaimed with irony.

“Wha-? I am not the one with a life-or-death secret, Dipper” Aiden said as he sat over the bed, seemingly upset.

“How can I know it? I don’t know what you hide from us” Dipper replied with serene voice.

Being sincere with himself, Aiden felt the unsaid _touché._

“Dipper look – you remember why are you here now, right? AI had a thing I needed help with from you, the fair is that I help you in turn. Besides, not sure how much you can help me with the speech if you just insist to keep your grumpy mode like you do”

Dipper fell silent. The seconds passed, and he finally rolled over the bed, staring at the roof.

“I guess I… I still don’t trust you enough”

“Reall-“

“And I know that’s dumb and stuff after all what happened but…”

“We’re allies but not true friends” Aiden interrupted with low voice. “I see…”

“I mean… Yeah we’re friends but… I can’t just lower my guard, not especially now that…”

“Especially after what?”

Dipper rolled his eyes away from Aiden, his eyebrows lowering with sadness. Aiden half-smiled.

“I guess we will have to have this conversation once more” Aiden said.

“Do we?” Dipper said back, rolling his eyes back to Aiden.

“Dipper I – I know I just came out of nothing the day after Mabel dumped me and I recognize it’s obvious it seems impossible for me to live such instantaneous change of mind… but I did. All of this time. And I mean, damn it, Dipper. We fought a ghost together, you convinced Ellen to have that first date with me and saved me from a memory-eating monster. How much big stuff more must happen between us before you to trust me?”

“I guess… it is the habit” Dipper replied, his eyes rolling below.

“You’re not like that with Hough and Dave”

“Hough and Dave don’t know I’m in love with my sister” Dipper said with a half-smile.

“Aaand shouldn’t that be a point for me?” Aiden insisted.

“Yes, I guess” Dipper finally admitted. “I… I didn’t find another college closer and better to admit me in”

“Oh” Aiden exclaimed with low tune. “So that means…”

“The MIT, yes” Dipper admitted with in defeat. “The other f*cking point of the country” he said with raspy anger. “After summer it will be months before I can see Mabel again a-and I just don’t know what’s this stupid punch in my chest. I mean she’s strong, she can with this. We can vidchat and keep in touch, just like when I was at the math camp but…”

“You fear she may need you here at some point” Aiden completed his sentence.

“Yes, it’s just like that” Dipper said with certain relief, turning his head to Aiden with a smile. “How do you know it?”

“Dude you’re not the only one here with a girlfriend” Aiden said with irony. Then he threw himself over the bed again. “Besides, being fair your girl is Mabel. You got extra points of worry for your double-love and the fact you have lived your entire life along her”

“Our double-love?”

“Someone here did his homework, buddy” Aiden replied with pride. “It was matter of time after all the time I spend along you and Mabel. One notices and one wonders how that works”

“Yeah, I guess it’s true” Dipper replied with warm relief.

“I got an idea”

“What?”

Out of nothing, Aiden rose from his bed and lost of sight. Dipper sat, hearing sounds of unseen objects below Aiden’s bed. Then Aiden went out of the bed with a huge, squared amplifier and a couple of microphones.

“Ehm, what’s that for, Aids?” Dipper asked in utter confusion.

“Well, I and Ellen have the habit of hang out to do some karaoke after a rough day and I thought it could help you to relax a little”

“Why the crack there?” Dipper pointed at a visible crack in one of the edges. Aiden smiled with nervousness when he remembered that time they were with the karaoke session until the things literally heated up and during the romance the amplifier fell out of bed.

“ehmm, nothing, it’s a cheap one” Aiden said with a fake smile.

“Ok. But I really doubt you’ll want to hear this voice to sing”

“Dipper, it doesn’t matter if you sing well, what matters is to sound as f*ck and have fun!” Aiden replied with joy.

“I wonder where you learned that from” Dipper replied with sarcasm. “Ok, but let me to choose the song”

“Will you choose static?” Aiden asked in disbelief.

“Ehmm… nop I won’t?”

“Gotya”

Aiden then went to the desk, connected the amplifier, and began to roll across the playlist in search for a suitable song for Dipper.

“Ellen really took out your musical ear, didn’t she?”

“Be sure she did, pal” Aiden answered with joy. “Aaaaaand here. This one fits you”

Dipper walked out of the bed to Aiden’s desk, looking at the song he chose with certain suspicious.

“Really?”

  
“Don’t you like oldies?” Aiden said with defiance.

“Not the corny ones” Dipper reassured.

“Come on, it will be fun” Aiden teased.

“Ehhh fine, give me that goddamn microphone”

So the song started, Dipper making a raspberry at the first seconds. How thing ended like this he could just flashback it. This was going to be awkward as heck…

_I never knew_

_I never knew that everything was falling through_

_That everyone I knew was waiting on a cue_

_To turn and run when all I needed was the truth_

Then he noticed. It was a funny feeling. It felt… like elation. He liked it…

_But that's how it's got to be_

_It's coming down to nothing more than apathy_

_I'd rather run the other way than stay and see_

_The smoke, and who's still standing when it clears_

There he was, the head in his head, the pumping in his heart. He liked to sing, he really did, but it was something he did in privacy, sometimes not even Mabel could convince to let his singing voice to get out. He liked the feeling of relief out of safe space, suddenly the eerie feeling of being cornered was not there while he alone, suddenly he felt braver and happier. His throat felt powerful like a whip, vibrations potent and sharp. Now he knew this part; and his voice was going to be heard.

_Everyone knows I'm in_

_Over my head_

_Over my head_

_With eight seconds left in overtime_

_She's on your mind_

_She's on your mind!_

Out of his own knowledge, he was suddenly charging his voice with that kind of merry passion that only Mabel had seen, his body following the compasses of the song, his face being the output of a cocktail of feelings and raging ideas within him. Aiden made his best to not giggle at such show; who needed drinks when you had karaoke?

_Everyone knows I'm in_

_Over my head_

_Over my head_

_With eight seconds left in overtime_

_She's on your mind_

_She's on your mind_

Dipper finally woke up from his musical trance, bewildered by the state of his body. His heart was punching against his ribs, his lungs breathing seizures, his head hot and his mind bubbly. That had been… Mesmerizing. He had loved it, and out of pure joy, what sounded like chuckles but were more properly sobs came out of his mouth, himself falling back to the bed. Aiden smiled warmly, those Pines guys were full of surprises. Keeping the supporting aims, he rose from the chair and threw himself against the bed. Dipper was still laughing creakily; a wide smile of peace imprinted over his face.

“I… I had never…” Dipper tried to say.

“Heh, not need to say it, pal. I was also quite overwhelmed with my first karaoke with El, but I guess you feel good for other reasons”

“Sort of. I… When we’re together we can be ourselves without fear. Feeling, touching, all our deal, but out there… out there we must hide it. Hold the urges to hold our hands, dodge kisses, put a goddamn belt around our hearts. With time it becomes a habit, and sometimes that hurts ‘cause I cannot assure anymore what can be a hint and what can’t. Just to allow myself to feel it out here, without… the fear… Thank you” Dipper finally said, turning his head to see Aiden. His smile said everything; he really needed this.

“Not the kind of noon you expected, I guess. But as a point about my skills to motivate I feel it a victory” Aiden pointed.

“I still don’t get how you don’t see as impressive anything you do. I mean…”

“You know what, I think there’s something” Aiden said in relief, looking at his friend with untold pride. Sure that little exhibition of catharsis was way far from resolve all his or Dipper’s problems, but as a starting it proved it. He could do big things. For Dipper, that little seed of hope meant the whole world, and that was everything he wanted to know for now. He was now sure what he was going to talk about for his speech.


	6. My Last Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wendy is going to move to Portland, but before, she had some well deserved rest to take before her long travel...

\- Gravity Falls, Oregon. August 15, 2018 -

The soft breeze filled the gentle cold airs of the darkening forest, illuminated sporadically by tiny floating dots of light which promised to be fireflies, but the most probable scenario was a flock of pixies. Out of the Corduroy hut, father and daughter rested unnerved in their lounge chairs, sharing the last moments of the day, each one with a beer in hand. Drink with her daughter, how strange feeling Dan was having in his mind, for a moment getting thinner the rock-hard barriers between them, almost never crossed, almost never spoken. But that incoming night, they had to broke them down for once, beause they wanted to. It was going the very last night in a long time, that they could have the chance to talk, and Dan had a lot of things to say, but neither she or him had idea of how begin to speak. Wendy had brought beers like a way to break the ice, but the glance of his father at the cans in the precise moment she came with them only made the atmosphere more awkward than it should be. So, they were there, uncomfortably quiet, with the air getting chilling around them.

"So... All ready?" Dan said with a flat nervous tone, trying to find comfort in the distraction that the tiny lights into the dark forest supposed to be.

"Yep. I will go at 10:00 AM. I said goodbye to everyone, Stan made me a party in the shack, I'd liked you could've come, it was fantastic" Wendy spoke, distinguishing the warm memories she held of the day, memories she could have to gain strength in the hard moments the future had for her.

Dan turned his head to see her, and the nostalgia hit his stomach quicker than he could've believed. The woman at his right side, full-grown and brave, holding her beer with her scarred hand attached to one of her muscled arms, was once the little baby he held in his enormous hands so much time ago. All the memories of her goals and her fails, her good day and her very very bad days crossed across his mind. The angry arguments they had and the harsh, silent dinners they had almost every day. The crazed seasons he taught her and her brothers how to survive an apocalyptic event in the harsh winters when everyone else was in house drinking hot cocoas and opening gifts, and the lots of boys he had to met when Wendy had the enough braveness to make them to meet him. And that moment, he remembered her place in the world, and the battles she fought during the unspeakable week in which the Hell fell from skies, a few years ago. She had already faced cosmic horrors and who-knows-what supernatural things that roamed at the depths of their own homeland, why he was feeling so worried about she being far from him? Why this unexpected paternal feeling overwhelmed him so much, when it never did before?

"Will you miss us?" He asked, the calmest he could. 

Wendy turned her head to him, and caught his moisty glance. She heard clear in her mind how a crack grew in her heart. She was particularly bad distinguishing what glances could mean, but she had seen that face her whole life, and knew that unusual occurrence only could mean something. Maybe he had been the craziest, most short-tempered and emotionally unstable man she could've ever known, capable of crash a car for the sole fact of insult his (and her mother's) favorite boy band. But he was her father, the burly man that taught her how to survive to everything, since bears to bad dates; the man who despite being always wearer of a mantle of undying manliness, never doubt in talk the hard girl-things with her when she was needed of an advice, and the strongest hugger she needed every time her heart was broken by an unappreciative guy and she had the braveness to let herself to show fragile. She knew he was not afraid of the perils out there, he was afraid of who could comfort her when she need to be weak. 

Wendy sat over the lounge chair, and after a quick sip to her beer can, gave a friendly punch to the enormous shoulder of his father. 

"Of course I'll do, big grumpy man!" She replied, officially breaking the ice between them. "Besides, there's something I need to ask, to keep you occupied the next summer" Wendy kept saying. Dan put his left hand bellow his head, and looked at her with serene curiosity.

"What?" He asked.

"Weeeell, as you may already known, Dipper and Mabel are... you know, _together together_ like aaaaaa _boyfriend-and-girlfriend-thing_" Wendy said, trying to not bewilder him too much; he already had his brief argument with her about that situation.

"Ahem" He replied, darting a little his eyes, trying to hide his stomach-punching feeling about that specific situation. 

"Well, I guess someday the next summer they will possibly find trouble here so... if you could put an eye on them every often I could thank you a lot. You know, you can never be sure if the ones are far from you are safe"

"Sure, why not?" Dan said half smiling. The task sounded a little out of place in that moment, but he guessed how important was for her, for them, and her relationship with him. There was no other person in the world who she could trust such little but meaningful task, and he knew it. 

"Oh, and... Don't let Gus mess with my stuff here! I want to have those flannel jackets clean when I'm back" She said, pointing at him with her beer.

"Deal" He replied, approaching his beer to hers.

"Deal" She said, clinking her beer against his. A sudden deep and noisy growl interrupted them, making the little light dots to fly fast in every direction. Over the tops of the trees, the head of a massive sauropod peeped out, munching the nearby pine trees.

"I'm gonna really miss this place!" Wendy exclaimed, pointing her beer at the brachiosaurus.

"And this place is going to miss you too, Wendy. For the Corduroys!!" Dan exclaimed louder, pointing his beer at the brachiosaurus as well. 

"For the Corduroys!" Wendy said as well. Maybe it as just a coincidence, or maybe the sauropod felt the enthusiasm, but he moaned aloud in response. Actually, Gravity Falls was going to miss her. One of its children was going to leave, and nothing was going to stop her...


	7. The Awakening of the Blobs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometime during 2019...  
Ancient beings from a forgotten world wake up at the scent of the Spring,... and they're hungry

“Wake up” The squiggly, squished voice echoed across the humid, dark space inside the cave, using words not meant to be understood by human ears. The low ceiling of the cave began to throw gently, generous amounts of water drops to the surfaces of the stony, greyish monticules which were each other at a respectful distance. But these were not stones at all, and that voice wasn’t saying anything at all.

Eyelashes, diffused by the surface of the round monticules, opened wide at the touch of the water drops, revealing disgustingly human eyes, eyes of red irises and pure white sclera that moved frantically in every direction, like not believing where they were. The stony monticules, like cheeks blushing, turned bluish, and their shapes began to melt like hot wax, turning into animated, blinking blobs of scaly blue skin. The hotness of all their breaths, not coming from any discernible thing that would be named “lung”, began to tarnish the glass-like polished surface of the nearby rocks, making every one that could’ve dared to get in, to know that those previously inanimate objects were in fact living animals, whose long sleep had finally ended.

In a moment, all the eyes of the shapeless beasts turned to the illuminated, eye-like shaped entrance of the cave, carving for the source of the calling. Thus they saw him, the Old One, the first one to wake up from their slumber, the one of the herd assigned to announce the coming of the spring. His round, bulging eyes looked at the amorphous crowd, and turned to see the light. Every eye of the herd saw it, and everyone inside knew, big or small, that the time to feed was coming. The Old One crawled heavily over the floor, and one by one, every single one of his acolytes followed him to the outer world.

Chilling, wafting breeze cooling their wet skins was the first thing everyone felt, as everyone began to look around to see how the outer world was now. The ancient, mighty forest was still there, as it was several millennia ago, when they got into their cave to sleep. The proud pine trees stood high and green, spilling at the air numerous amounts of smelly miasma and delightful scents to new, vibrant life. Theirs body surfaces felt the endless chirping of lots of flying things and the howling of unseen beasts yet to be seen, and a non understandable feeling of newness imprinted a joyful sense of awe in every squishy soul over the forest floor. . 

The Old One looked around the nearby environment, in search of a passage. Their sleep place was located at the mouth of a cliff, surrounded by rocks; so slippery, that any other living thing that could try to access their resting place would slip up to a certain death between the polished rocks. He didn’t see too much before to find a passage, and slowly dragged himself to their access to the rest of the forest.

So his herd followed him. The shapeless, tarnished bodies crawled over the floor like gigantic snails, waving the edges of their bodies at the rhythm of a forgotten flag. Nor the tiny stones nor the little leaf pieces had any resistance against the ceaseless march of dozens of sleepy, hungry human-sized blobs, in whose brainless minds was a unique desire: feed. 

One by one, the slow but determined beasts came out from the wall of polished rocks that protected their slumber place into the wild, unforgiving forest; some of them were already lifting portions of their bodies in an attempt to catch the scent of what it served as their main source of food: rotten meat. 

Suddenly, everyone stopped their march, and looked at the Old One. he had lifted as well, and now was turning its aroused body in every direction, in search of the smell of old dead flesh. There was a moment of complete quietness, with every eye in the herd put on him, not sure what could happen next. 

But then, The Old One rose a little more, and suddenly came back his body over the floor. He had detected something. He didn’t know what new odds (and feasts) this new world in which they woke up had for them. But he was sure about something…

They were going forward.


	8. Zombie Waltz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Undead awaken, as every full moon, and one of them, oddly enough, can recall, that he once was... someone.

Rotten, bitter, heathen and forgotten, as we should all be.

Our eyes, long ago melted away inside raspy steams of dirt, shine as the mighty Moon, our god and protector, shines to conceive us the right to walk again. 

Dust to dust, flesh to flesh. So from dust we go back to our flesh, and like the ancient forest around us, we rise from ground. Whimping, rambling, moaning, walking. 

The weight of unbearable centuries slowly fades away, and unaformentionable pains come to our meet instead.

Dirt, rocks, bugs and moss. Every step we make over this Land of Men is a gift and a punishment at all, as I walk among the Hordes of What Shall Not Be Anymore. 

I figure they say nothing, because is "nothing" all they can say. And I figure they're as hungry as I am, because as me they bit at the flesh of the airs, getting nothing at all.

Lurking, crawling, baffling and walking; our walk extends beyond. I look at my starving comrades, but no glance comes back. And I ponder, still being me, if the souls that once inhabited this rotten carcasses were going to be aware of what shall be of the bodies they left behind. 

I keep memories, of the soul once was me. Chopping, stomping, drinking and dancing. 

My flesh once held a man, a man with dreams and will.

But then the liars came, and promised things destined forever to never be.

My man worked, as his fellows did too. Hours, Days, Nights, Months. 

Many souls gone, and many other souls came. Thus the promised day came, and as the clouds us, the liars' cape finally fell. 

And we walked away. Tired, bribed, pained. 

Thus the storm came straight, and the men marooned us when our lungs were filled with dirt and death. 

But this place, that these men once called home, held to strange life and secrets, never meant to be ever told. 

And we awoke, and desired what desires every being made of flesh. Keep, feed, live. 

And now we're hunger, as much as we'll ever be, and we walk, don't know where, don't now when, among the unforgiving storm, the fire, the thunder and the plants soaked in deadly thorns. 

No man nor beast dares to us, and no man or beast satisfy to us. We beg for flesh, we come for flesh. 

We are the Undead, a nature's mocking beings. And we shall arise again, to make the Death our feast!


	9. Some Merry Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May 23, 2019. Mabel follows Dipper's steps to be a titan hunter, but Dipper is not so convinced...


	10. The Swimmers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the Solace at the edges of Creation, there once upon a time a knight...

Far, so far away that any superlative could be too short to describe it, so far that almost no universes were around, in the greyness of Eternity, he was there.

Sat on a rock, he was staring heartedly at the old, browned photo of something he lived, but now had never happened. Not even the howling of the gigantic herd of Swimmers could distract him from his feast of warm memories, and that was to say much about how he was feeling in that moment.

Swimmers swam on the voidless foam of the Nightmare Realm peacefully, but hurried. Several of them, each one bigger than a thousand universes stuck together, was there out of pure joy of finally meet with others of their kin. Their gargantuan tentacles waved in slow-motioned joy as their dragged their infinite masses across the edges of the Multiverse; or at least, what looked like the edges of the Multiverse.

Nor he or anyone else before he had heard about had ever reached that far; he was so far from the cosmos that once was its home, that the reign of Bill Cipher had no chance to touch the region. He could avail that, because the tiny purple plants scattered across the immense asteroid in which he was sitting now, his nostrils relaxing at the scent of their otherworldly pollen. Those plants were said to be the remnants of an ancient reign of life that Bill burned all along after a bloody war against the original and true inhabitants of the Nightmare Realm, the ones who flew wild before the great empires of the Multiverse were even able to put a foot out of their home dimensions.

Their identities lost, it was sure, but he was still guarding the hopes to find one and help the ancient glory of the Void to go back again. After all, the Void was now his home… and sadly, also his imprisonment.

He had seen many wild and beautiful and ravenous things on his travels across the Multiverse, seen and saved many worlds and their inhabitants whichever their natures could be. He had been a warrior, a legend, _The Chevalier de L’Oubli._ But no campaign or war or glory he had ever experienced could compare to the hurt he was feeling for be that away from home.

His mind drove back to the times when he used to sneak into his universe to talk with Aiden, about earthly and mundane topics or just to hang out. He remembered he hadn’t accomplished his promise to take him to see what laid behind the skies, and even if he knew that probably he was going the lifespans of everyone he loved before to can go back, he felt still the warming thrill of have the chance to keep his promise.

What could be he doing right now? He pondered a long time. Maybe hanging out with Ellen, or being teased by Mabel about the times in which they dated, or going into his own adventures.

His heart had at least a little of content to know his parents were safe at the hands of such loyal friend, and now, the whole family could take care of their secret too as long as they needed.

But not even that was enough.

He knew that in the deeps of his heart, everything he wanted was to hug Cassie a last time, to hear one of their mother’s awful but cute jokes,… to look at their father and tell him how much he was sorry for how bad things went and the mess he did of their universe.

Now he knew why despite all the majestic things the Multiverse had, all the places in which one could spend a life of comfort, his Master's biggest desire was to be in his home a last time; he understood now, why he fought for the Neverwere on a war that wasn’t his. Nothing was more valuable in Creation than the ones one loves.

But even when his loved ones were safe or yet to be born, they were fated to never know a word, to never let out a single tear for him. To have the lives they could live happy and together. Because every creature in Creation deserved a happy ending. Every single of them.

… But, what about his?

He couldn’t just say he didn’t cared anymore. He couldn’t ever not care about it, and he was, despite everything, in peace with that. Because being away and forgotten hurt, but they were safe, and that was a thing to be happy for.

But suddenly, he felt it. As an itch on the eye which wasn’t rolling tears, like air on his crystalline lungs, like a warm on his heart.

Just this time, as long as he took him to reach the site in which he was he didn’t cared, just this time he could see her a last time.

Brief as it had to be, but he would take his chance.

He stood bravely over the soil of the asteroid, and propelled himself away, scaring for a moment to the gigantic Swimmers.

Eternity could still wait for his mission, he had someone to see…


	11. The Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> \- Gravity Falls, June 2, 2027  
Cassie had a terrible experience, and Dipper's going to take her to a trip to overcome her fears...

It was the second hour of travel across the woods. Almost an hour ago, they had already passed the grassy glade in which there was the hole which led to the Burrows, the territory of the fearsome Mole People; and half an hour ago, they had boarded the territories of the Kill Billies. Cassie reminded herself of the dirty, corny figures that growled at them as they passed near their territories; their red eyes still clear in her mind. Dipper looked at her every often, knowing the last thing she wanted to do was to talk. She knew why they were doing this as much as him, and despite she didn’t make protest, she wasn’t comfortable with the idea anyway.

There, in the middle of the forest, anything would happen.

Thus something had happened last week, the same thing that scared Cassie so much, the reason of their actual father-daughter little trip. “Little”, knowing the distance they had already walked. She tried in vain to seek distraction in the sounds of whatever her boots were squishing in the way, but she had been always been as terrible as her father to hide their feelings, and Dipper acknowledged she was still scared, very very scared.

But he was determinated to take back the braveness of his daughter.

“Are we close now?” Cassie asked with her best pretention of patience. They had begun to feel the heaviness of the hill, even when it wasn’t too pronounced.

“Kind of…” Dipper replied vaguely. Cassie recognized some stony ruins in a glade far behind the forest; stony monoliths with spirals carved in them, half buried in a sea of grass.

“Heh! Look there, Dad. I bet Mom would love be here” Cassie said, pointing at the ruins, almost invisible between the trees.

“I really doubt it, Cass. Your mother had always been in bad terms with the unicorns, but she tries her best I can say” Dipper answered with a dot of humor, looking briefly at the ruins. The unicorns had marooned their hidden sanctum a long time ago, but Cassie had been there at least once, even when she had come with him in car and she really didn’t measure the distance properly. She remembered herself more eager that time, and not so scared as she was right now. Every howl or far roar coming from the distance was suddenly louder than she remembered them, even when she distinguished perfectly the origins of such noises.

“Why is the backpack for?” Cassie appointed, trying her best to ignore the sounds around them.

“Well, one never know what one would need. We must be prepared” Dipper replied with calmed tune, holding for a moment the straps of his backpack. Dipper knew that she recognized what kind of backpack it was, and despite they surely wouldn’t need any of their contents, he supposed that have such heavy tools would make her to feel a little safer. And they were _really_ heavy tools.

“I’d like Mom could have come with us, she loves our family trips” Cassie said, trying to push the conversation. Seemingly, that was distracting her more efficiently, as the growing confidence in her steps showed her.

“I’d liked too, Cass. But, this is not that kind of trips. This is…” Dipper tried to answer. It was an odd occurrence not to have the right words to describe what he was going to do, even when Mabel had pointed at the concept a lot last night with her usual enthusiasm. In the bottom of his mind he had a little quote of guilt. What kind of life was that one for a little girl? She had her reasons to be scared; what happened to her could have traumatized anyone, not to say an 8-years-old like her. Not every day one is attacked by a stray zombie. Even when his intentions were clear, other part of him stored the possibility of say goodbye to everything so she would feel more safe.

But not this day. Today he was going to be brave, for her.

“We’re almost there, get closer” Dipper told her, walking a little slower so she would approach him more easily.

“What are you going to show me, Dad?” Cassie asked, a little scared. Dipper hadn’t ever been the kind of father who pushes for braveness in their children, but some part of Cassie’s consciousness felt shame for not be the enough brave, for not endure that, for hide bellow her bed when she arrived home, and for have needed all of that support just for get out from the shack the next day to feed Waddles. If her father wanted to do that, she was going to do her best.

But neither Dipper nor Mabel were ever that kind of parents.

A strange sound, part growling, part chirping, echoed from behind the trees that stood between them and the sight of the place they were going to; it sounded eerily like an “Ohee! Ohee!”. Cassie shrouded, in her mind imagining all kinds of crooked monsters, much like the ones her mother crafted. Dipper didn’t hold her hand, didn’t pat her shoulder, and didn’t tell her anything. He just looked at her, at her terrified daughter, who suddenly stopped where she was with her arms in front her body in an expression of pure fear, and no matter how hurtful was to see her like that, he smiled at her. It was all he allowed himself to do, and it was all she felt she was worthy to receive for her cowardice.

She couldn’t be more wrong about her father, but he wasn’t going to act like she had reasons to be scared. He was going to show her, a very different side of the forest she knew.

“it is time” Dipper told her, and extended his hand to show her the way. “Don’t be afraid, I’ll be with you”.

“Mhm” Cassie nodded, and walked in slow steps behind her father, across the dense trees which were hiding the spot in the forest Dipper wanted to show her.

The floor below them took a muddier appearance, and the roots of the trees they were dodging became a little grosser, as if they were hiding something. Cassie detected a subtle but intense scent to pomegranate as they got closer; that was the favorite fruit of her granddad since the grunkles had brought some of them the last summer they were in home, and she remembered the scent pretty well. Eat them was annoying, but she enjoyed the smell.

_Mhmm, odd smell. Why does this place smell like that?_

She was about to know it.

The trees ceased almost like a sort of fence around a muddy glade, boarded with rocks which looked like made of black gravel, and Cassie finally saw the scene.

At the center of the glade there was a big strange tree, like taken from a tropical jungle, leafy and majestic. It has a bulbous bottom, from which protruded the main trunk. Supported by high, lined branches there were the masses of leaves, round like grapes and shiny as if they were forever moisty. From the bulbous part of the trunk, littler branches sprouted like wooden arms, holding between their fingers curious fruits of red color and four tentacle-like extensions each one.

Cassie felt her heartbeat go out of control, as she made a step back. Not because the tree, but the creatures around it.

Four, maybe six animals twice of their height were eating the fruits of the tree. They had the appearance of black, wingless geese, with chubby, human-like feet at the sides of their fat bodies. Their little heads were like the ones of the reptiles, which a curious crest that reminded Cassie some dinosaurs which as well lived in the forest. The creatures emitted their characteristic “Ohee Ohee!” when they looked each other, apparently as a form of communication, sounding deep and aloud like howling monkeys.

Cassie stared at the mouths of the beasts, which had each one a row of teeth that ran all around the edges of their lips like a sort of cartoonish monster, and at the blackish, woodpecker-like eyes of confusing expression.

She acknowledged they were frugivorous, she reasoned they were of clumsy bodies and heavy steps, but her fears were still high and her guilt about that was making itself unbearable. Their grunting, the frantic movements of their long necks, everything reminded her about the zombie that attacked her in the balcony after school.

_I can do this. I can do this; for Dad!_

She inhaled hard, and exhaled away all the fear she could; she was ready for anything that was coming.

_Bring it on, father!_

“It is here” Dipper said, looking at Cassie. The delightment of his glance was almost contagious; the warm of his eyes almost astonishing. Very few discoveries of the forest had ever aroused such degree in content on her father, so she instantly knew they were in front of a very, very unique and special occurrence. Almost by reflex, Cassie smiled back, as Dipper looked back at the strange tree. “Come with me”.

_Ok, you can do it, don’t be afraid._

Dipper walked slowly towards the tree, and Cassie followed behind him. The black, furred animals looked at them for a moment, still munching their foot, to just after go back to their feeding without giving them so much attention. Cassie wouldn’t distinguish if what covered their bodies was hair or feathers or scales; such strange integument reflected the like that came between the trees above them in a way that made her more difficult to distinguish.

“What is this place?” Cassie finally asked when she was sure no trace of fear would be detected on her voice. Of course, she failed, but Dipper recognized she made her best to pretend, and that made him smile.

“We found them a few months ago, after that storm that lasted the entire week. Back then the tree was only half of the size it has now. Next morning we saw the creatures approach to the trees, and we quickly discovered they were harmless. I documented them for weeks, even we made genetic analysis to determine if they were from this Earth or they came from other place” Dipper answered, when they reached the tree. It was much bigger than it looked like, but the fruits were at their reach, each one as big as Cassie’s chest, and just a little littler than the heads of the enormous beasts which were eating them. “We discovered they were in fact from Earth, this Earth, but…”

“But?” Cassie asked. Dipper put a hand over one of the fruits, remembering.

“It is hard to describe. They’re meant to be _here_, but they’re not meant to be _now_. They come from far in time, as the tree that is here. Of all the places in time and space these animals found this forest. No one of them had been seen before in History, and no one will be seen in a very long time. This is a special place on world, and we are lucky enough to live on it”

“Even… if it is dangerous?” Cassie remembered in growing fear, looking away in shame. She felt the weight of her father’s hand over her shoulder, and she looked back.

“I know you were afraid, and I’m sorry for what happened to you –“

“No. Don’t do it; it was my fault, I am not… strong”

“You are, Cassie, as you wouldn’t ever imagine. I – I just wanted to – Look –” He tried to articulate. “I know you’re scared. About this, about many things. But… What I want you to know is that sometimes hard things happen, even in the special places like this, even when they can’t be. But those things don’t have to spoil the good things we have or make them unimportant” He finally said, resting on his knees to face her. “Look at you. Any other person would say it was a tragedy, that it hadn’t to happen. But I and your mother love each other so much, and you were – No, you _are_ the biggest gift Life has given to us, you were… our surprise. And… I want you to see how strong you really are. You beat that goddamn zombie with a transporter, how many children can say that?”.

Cassie saw the moist over her father eyes, and heard the sincerity in his words. This little morning trip, was one of those days who she had listened old people say changed their lives. That one was a lesson, she wouldn’t ever can forget. She looked around herself, at the creatures which were feeding peacefully around them. Not all of things in the forest were as friendly as them, as much not all the things in life she would find were destined to be, her parents could acknowledge that. But that was no reason to run away from everything, and she, coming from where she came, wasn’t going to run.

“Can I feed one?” Cassie asked with a brave smile. Dipper grinned and rose from the floor, turning to hold one of the big fruits between his hands and heavily rip it from its branch. Then he turned back, and closened the fruit to Cassie.

“Be gentle; they get easily scared” Dipper advised to her, as Cassie took the fruit between her arms. It was as heavy as she had imagined it, she could compare its weight to the weight of her school backpack. She looked at the curious fruit, with its scent more intense than ever. The smell was so delicious, she imagined all kinds of desserts that could be made from a single of them.

“I’m curious, it is edible for us?” Cassie asked, looking at the fruit.

“Well, Stanton ate one and he’s still alive; we can bring one back home” Dipper answered.

“Wonderful” She replied with awe.

Cassie looked at the animals, figuring which one she would pick to feed. Almost like educated customers, the creatures kept their distance from Cassie as she walked among them; it seemed they never took the fruits from others who had already picked theirs.

_Monster with Manners… I like it!_

Finally, a preferred customer, at the border of the glade. Cassie walked towards the animal, who arched the neck with inferring curiosity in her direction. Cassie turned back to look at Dipper, and he nodded friendly. The creature waved his head right and left, glancing at Cassie.

_It must have peripheral vision, much like horses._

With growing nervousness, Cassie extended her arms above them, offering the fruit to the beast. Would the beast comprehend what Cassie was doing? It looked like it did; the animal approached his head towards the fruit, and carefully, took the fruit between its odd jaws away from Cassie’s hands.

Cassie lowered her arms in a continuous laugh, as the beast rose its head while it was munching the fruit. She felt a figure approaching her, and turned to see her father walking in her direction.

“Thank you, Dad” Cassie said with warm voice.

“Com’ here, Cass” Dipper replied, extending his arms with a big smile. Cassie moved and hugged him tightly, as she shifted to glance again at the beast, still munching the fruit.

“Do you think I can pick the fruit?” Cassie asked, looking at her father.

“They’re pretty hard to pluck; are you sure?”

“Oh! come on, Dad. I am strong! The strongest of strongesties” She replied in a merry tune.

“Yeah I can’t deny that” Dipper said back, rubbing her shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The creatures used in this fic are from a book. After Man: A Zoology of the Future; by Dougal Dixon.


	12. Dreamtalk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> January, 2030. The King and The Queen have a short talk...

The sunlight stained the shoreline like heavy ink, as the majestic animal of blackish scales laid resting at the very edge of the ocean. It was not a clever movement to move the egg from the place he found it, but her queen requested it with great inquiring, and she was the only being of this Earth that could ever dare to request him something. She had insisted, that they had to be there.

_"Comfortable?"_

_"Not yet"_

The king moved his inmense tail around the egg, covering it from the coming sun.

_""Better?"_

_"Thank you"_

The king raised his enormous head, and looked at the seas. His memories drove him to the old days of the world, when The Man was young and wise; the times before... the Coming.

_"That is a nice memory, my dear"_

The king looked at the egg with a dismissive glance. It was not a very polite thing to see his memories, but they had already crossed the boundaries of their symbiosis a long time ago, when they decided they wanted to be something more than just allies. He rested his head again over the ground, and breathed deep.

_"I remember the city. I liked the city"_

_"I liked it too. The Man does not know how to build anymore"_

_"You had your own city, my Queen"_

_"Yes, but I always liked to make you visits" _

The king, with his head still over the ground, turned his eyes to the sea, going deeper in his memories.

_"I remember it. I know I always ask you, but... It hurts?"_

_"It always does. But I do not care. I shall be always here"_

_"It hurts to see you to die. Every single time, no matter how much I know you will come back"_

_"Could you know this is love if you could not feel hurt for that?"_

_"I hate when you are condescending with me, my Queen"_

The king raised his head again, and licked the egg tenderly, washing away the sand over it. 

_"Do you think The Man will talk to us again?"_

_"I feel they are very close to learn how to do it again, That is why we are here. Also..."_

_"He is there, it is not? Under the Land"_

_"..Yes. I am sorry, I had to tell you"_

_"Do not apologize, my Queen. I understand. If only I had the chance to see someone else of my breed once again, I could not care to have to fight"_

_"I will fight with you this time, I promise!"_

The king, once again, rested his head over the sands, and closed his eyes peacefully.

_"Be patient, My Queen, take your time. After all, I can tell you to never sub estimate the power of a good nap..."_


	13. Tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jun 22, 2031. Cassie spends some quality time with her favorite Titan...

“The sunset is near. I have to go” Cassie replied for third time. And again, the giant feet moved softly in denial.

“Mom and Dad will panic… Again” She exclaimed. Again, the giant feet moved over the ground softly.

“Arghhhh… Ok, let’s do this: You pick me back home and I read the end of the story in the way back” Cassie suggested, putting her middle finger between the pages she was reading before close the book with her same hand. Steve looked like he agreed, because at instant he put one of his enormous hands over the floor with his palm at air. Cassie smiled proudly, and walked to above the hand, sitting over it comfortably. Steve raised delicately his hand, lifting her above the high trees. The sunset’s orange sky looked even more wonderful above the trees, cut at the horizon for a sea of pointy trees. She looked to the face of the forest giant; he was smiling like a child showing a drawing to the grownups.

“Woow… I’m speechless… ” Cassie said, resisting her urges to put on feet. Steve looked at her with a lifted eyebrow as he growled insistently.

“True! The end of the tale. Ok. My house is… there!” She exclaimed, pointing at the outer parts of forest, right to the sunset. The giant nodded softly and began to walk towards the shack.

“Ok, where I was?… Here. The whimsical Superfreakoustous yelled at princess Cornotavia and said furiously ‘Prove my unwonderful Sloth-Snakes!!’…”


End file.
